


Someone Else's Someone

by K1mHeechu1



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M, Moon Taeil is a bit thick, Pining, Romance, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Walmart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-20
Updated: 2021-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-24 15:13:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30074175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K1mHeechu1/pseuds/K1mHeechu1
Summary: Haechan.exe has stopped workingHe blinked a few times, trying to reboot his brain to make sense of the letter printed on the piece of plastic he was holding.Moon TaeilHis wrist throbbed under the bracelet.Or: The one where Haechan harasses a customer, who also happens to be his soulmate- and Taeil is... well, he's just confused.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Moon Taeil
Comments: 1
Kudos: 36
Collections: NCT Walmart Fic Fest R1





	Someone Else's Someone

**Author's Note:**

> Quick disclaimer:
> 
> I have no idea how Walmart in other countries work; I'm not from the US; I've never worked retail in my life (and it shows)
> 
> Happy reading!!

Haechan didn’t really hate his job. 

Sure, the shifts were shit, and the pay was not as good as it should’ve been for the number of hours they actually had to work a week, but it wasn’t THAT bad. 

He had been smart enough to instantly claim the graveyard shift everyone tried their best to avoid-- His classes started at 4 PM the earliest, so getting home at 8 AM was not a big deal when he could sleep the entire morning and still be functional enough to attend his lectures. Working during the night also meant that, between 10 and 6, he tended to see one or two people per hour, at most. Uni students pulling all-nighters, desperate parents trying to locate items for their child or their pregnant partner; and the occasional night owl were the only people he saw during his working hours, and he thankfully was out the door before most people were even awake. 

Since there were so few things to do other than to wait around for people to come in, he tended to use his time to revise and do homework. On a good night, he could fit a good four to five hours of studying in between the random clients, so he wasn’t really mad about it. It surely was better than whatever the guys that had the shift that ended before his dealt with. His friend Jeno spent fifty per cent of the last hour of his shift holding tears from the stress most days, and there was one time during Christmas he had actually started bawling when Haechan had arrived to take over the till. Haechan did not envy him at all, poor fella.

* * *

  
  


Haechan tended to stop studying around 6 AM, before the last bunch of night owls usually trickled in before they either went to bed or went to work, 

“So… did cutie come by again?”

Haechan mentally groaned. Of course Yangyang had arrived early. Haechan loved his friend, but after a night of calculus revision, the last thing he wanted was to interact with someone that knew exactly which points to press to make him snap and answer to anything he asked. 

“Hello, Yangyang. What a pleasant surprise. Why are you early, again?”

“I don’t like the sarcasm in your voice, Lee Haechan.”

“Liu Yangyang, I’ve been trying to make sense of things I shouldn’t have to because I’m a History major, for the past five hours, miss me with your bullshit until 7.”

Yangyang rolled his eyes but thankfully realised Haechan’s was in an awful enough mood to attack instead of joke and went to annoy Sicheng where he was restocking milk cartons or something like that, until his shift started.

He set to organising the money in the till, wishing the minutes to go by faster. 

“Morning,” a voice called out of nowhere, making him jump and look up in surprise.

It was Cutie.

Cutie, as Yangyang had named the client that kept coming in between 6 AM and 7 AM, had first started coming about two months ago. Haechan had first seen him early in his shift one night, buying pillows, silverware, curtains and an assortment of cleaning products, joking around with a too-tall friend that, from what Haechan had been able to piece together from their talk and the things they had bought, was helping him move into his new place. 

Since that night, Cutie had religiously come in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Haechan had a (not so) secret crush on the man, who always bought an obscene amount of sugar-free Red Bull and gave him a bright smile as he paid for his purchases in cash. He always wore some sort of hoodie/jumper and joggers combination and looked so tiny and soft Haechan could do nothing but wish he could squish his cheeks from how plump and pouty he always looked.

Needless to say, Haechan had a crush on Cutie. A crush that was larger than the entire shop’s deposit. Yangyang had, of course, realised what was going on one day he had gotten in early and seen the way Haechan blushed while giving Cutie his change back. 

Also needless to say that by the afternoon, their entire friend group knew of Haechan’s crush. 

“Good morning, you okay there?” 

A voice startled him out of his thoughts. Haechan looked up and found Cutie standing in front of him, groceries waiting to be rung in.

“Yes! Sorry, today’s shift has felt a little too long. Welcome to Walmart!”

Haechan quickly scanned all the items, trying to figure out how on earth cutie made his way through eight packs of Red Bull a week and hadn’t dropped dead from a heart attack.

“I get you, tonight felt really long for me too. You’re almost done, though, right?”

“Yeah,” Haechan quickly bagged up the last few items, efficiently making everything fit into the reusable fabric bags Cutie always brought with him- ‘Ugh, we love an environmentally-conscious man’. “My shift finishes at 7.” He smiled at Cutie before turning to the till. “Okay, your total is 54,95. Cash as always?”

“Yeah- oh wait, I only have 20. Shoot, I thought I had grabbed more money on my way out.” Cutie patted all his pockets, before sighing and taking out his wallet. “Oh, well, make it debit card, I don’t have enough cash to cover that.”

“Sure thing, may I have an ID?” Haechan picked the wireless card reader from behind the bar code scan, knowing that the built-in one was completely dead and trying to use it would be a complete waste of time.

“Yeah, here,” Cutie gave him the card and ID, and Haechan nodded as he grabbed them and put them side to side to compare the information. He took a single look at the card and froze.

_ Haechan.exe has stopped working _

He blinked a few times, trying to reboot his brain to make sense of the letter printed on the piece of plastic he was holding.

**_Moon Taeil_ **

His wrist throbbed under the bracelet. 

Haechan turned the ID around, softly running his finger over Taeil’s signature. 

The same three words, in the same handwriting he had stared for hours upon hours every single day since he was fifteen.

He looked up at Cuti- At Taeil. He suddenly couldn't breathe.

  
  
  
  


* * *

* * *

  
  
  
  
  
  


“Hey, Taeil-Hyung!”

Taeil looked up from where he was bending over his laptop, fingers typing away as he tried to finish the report before he went to bed. 

“Hi, Jungwoo. There’s cake in the fridge if you want some, I couldn’t finish it all and Johnny didn’t want to take it home.”

“Sweet! I’ll steal a slice then! I was just coming to drop the puppy! She slept through most of the night, Hyung, I have no idea what you meant when you said she kept crying.” 

Taeil could hear Jungwoo taking Bambi out of the doggy carrier, followed by the quick clicks of her little paws on the wooden floor. He sighed when he heard the tiny whines and little wet tongue licking at his ankle, giving up on his report and picking the dog up.

“Yes, yes, hello, I missed you too,” he chuckled as the puppy wiggled her entire body from excitement and happiness from being reunited with her owner. “Jungwoo, I bet she slept the entire night without crying because you did exactly what I told you not to do and allowed her to sleep with you in your bed. You’re lucky Johnny’s not home for the week.”

“Hyung, please, Johnny would’ve been the first one to cuddle her to sleep like a little baby and you know it. Also, she’s tiny, what was I supposed to do!?” Jungwoo petted her little head, smiling at how cute she was. “Anyway, call me if you need me to babysit again during the week, I’m going to head out before I’m late for class or professor Chen will murder me, he’s finally trusting me enough to allow me to give the lecture by myself. See you later, Hyung!! Bye princess, Uncle Jungwoo loves you!”

Taeil rolled his eyes as he heard the front door slam shut. He was convinced it wouldn’t take long at all before Jungwoo broke the front door’s glass. 

Moving overseas had to be the riskiest thing Taeil had ever done.

His mother had gotten extremely mad at him, ranting about jobs, money, and how he was doing it on purpose to never meet his soulmate. As if South Korea was the only place were Koreans lived. 

In reality, Taeil felt stuck. He was tired of everything, and with Johnny and Jungwoo moving after Jungwoo’s graduation, he had been completely alone. 

So, he had done the unthinkable and talked to the university where he worked as a literature and creative writing professor, and they had agreed to make his class an online one. (One of COVID’s leftover good things, he guessed. No one batted an eye at online classes anymore.) 

Taeil had packed his entire life in two suitcases and one box he had shipped, called Johnny to tell him he was coming, and moved.

Bambi had been his welcome gift from Johnny and Jungwoo. She made the days go by easier, made him feel a little less lonely. The only downside was that she kept crying during the night when the time difference meant he had Zoom classes to teach, and he couldn’t do it with a puppy whining in the background.

A puppy that was currently, quite successfully, trying to pull his wristband off him to chew on it.

He shook his head as the puppy ran away with the piece of fabric, before looking down at his wrist, gently, almost reverently running a finger over the writing.

  
  


**_Lee Donghyuck_ **

  
  


Taeil couldn’t help but daydream.

_ ‘I wonder if you want to meet me as much as I want to find you… Donghyuck... ‘ _


End file.
